'Made by Apple in California': Flop or Famous?

Apple's "Designed by Apple in California" dubbed a flop by many, is getting plenty of publicity. But not in the way Apple likely intended. The ad received a viewer score of 489 out of 900 based on the Ace Metric scale. This low-scoring commercial, compared to Apple's 26 other ads this year, has created quite the buzz on Bloomberg, LA Times, Ad Age and various other sites.

Why the low score?

First, is it really a low score? The industry average is 542 making the Apple ad not far from status quo. By contrast, Apple's most popular ads scored around 700. More importantly, Samsung's commercials have been ranking above 600.

You might be surprised to know it wasn't the company's philosophy that viewers didn't like; it was the lack of information and the sad tone to the commercial.

Apple is known for cutting edge technology. Perhaps viewers were disappointed that the commercial was focused on branding versus one of Apple's new devices.

Why the change?

It's a simple answer, really. If a well-known brand is losing market share to stiff competition and doesn't have any new products to debut, what do you do? You do the branding thing in an attempt to energize your loyal fans with strong company values.

A secondary reason could be to remove any lingering bad rapport about Apple's working conditions in China which was heavily criticized last year. Since then, the company has taken strides to move some production into the United States. This, coupled with a seemingly intentional shift in focus from manufacturing to design, is likely a major reason the brand went with "Designed by Apple in California."

Flop or famous?

If the commercial's goal was to draw attention away from Samsung's new products and back to Apple, they got it. Just not in the way they intended.

Sometimes an attack on a much loved brand is exactly what is needed to energize loyal consumers. Keep in mind, low scores on ad surveys are not always indicative of consumer purchase patterns.

What are your thoughts on the commercial? Do you think this will hurt their new product launch coming up?

This guest post was written by Alicia Lawrence, content coordinator for WebpageFX and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land.